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UNAIR NEWS – Businessman and philanthropist, Dato’ Sri Prof. Dr. Tahir, MBA presented studium generale titled ‘Strengthening Industry-Academia Linkage for the Better World’, on Monday March 14 in Garuda Mukti Hall, UNAIR Management Office. He started his presentation by telling a story of how he started to be a philanthropist.

“Becoming a wealth person or a great businessman is just a process not an objective. It will only be messy if we confound an objective and process. My life objective is to bring values for most people,”he said. His principle, a man must be a good man before doing good things.

Born from parents who rented pedicabs in Surabaya, Tahir childhood was full of hardships. One moment later, he saw a TV show telling a story of a kid with kwarshiorkor which disturbed him.

“At that time I said to myself, if one day I am wealthy, I will fix this. And God listened to my prayer,”

While he started being a philanthropist, the man with an honorary title Dato’ Sri from Pahang Monarchy, Malaysia chose education and health for his philanthropic activities.

“There is no nation claimed as a great nation if the education isn’t well managed,” he said. Through Tahir Foundation he provides aids to improve health quality in Indonesia.

“I am pleased when my money is used for improving healthcare,” said the man who is also a Board of Trustees member of University of California, Berkeley.

He admitted that he could not choose in which family he was born, but he believes that he can choose to be a good man or a bad man. Born as Indonesian, he wants his existence to bring benefits for the nation.

“Before God stops me, I will keep struggling,” he said.

Scheme of Professorship

Tahir admitted being impatient when universities in Indonesia could not perform excellently. The rankings of Indonesian universities at International level proved this. Most of them have not been able to reach Top 500 World University.

“In Indonesia, universities don’t have endowments. How can they develop?” he said. He advised UNAIR to be open and collaborate more with businessmen.

He also encouraged UNAIR to start improving scheme of professorship so all professors can get funds from businessmen in developing their researches. He believed that can be great when its research activities develop excellently.

In the end of the studium generale, Tahir who used to be in IKOMA UNAIR said that he also applied in Faculty of Medicine, but he was accepted in Faculty of Law and Faculty of Economy. He then cancelled his study at UNAIR when he got admitted in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

“May UNAIR always be better and better,” he said. (*)

Author           : Yeano Andhika